LibGuides: Find Your Sources: Introduction

Research Tutorial Links

1. Research Tutorial
Your introduction to college level research.

2. College Level Research
College level research, scholarly & peer reviewed articles and more.

3. Your Research Assignment
Understanding your research assignment and picking a topic.

4. Find Your Sources
Find college level books, eBooks, articles and media for your research assignments.

5. Evaluate Your Sources
Evaluating your sources and spotting fake sites, fake news and media bias.

6. Cite Your Sources
Citation, plagiarism, copyright and fair use.

Access Library Sources At Home

It's true, you can access most COM Library resources at home! COM Library’s catalog, and the thousands of eBooks and articles in our databases can all be accessed off campus. Just login with your COM account for off campus access.

Find Your Sources

Most assignments specify what kinds of sources you can use, such as books, eBooks, articles, media or websites.

Hundreds of Thousands of Sources Available

COM Library provides access to the college level sources that your instructors love! Tens of thousands of books and eBooks, hundreds of thousands of articles, streaming media and primary sources that can even help you cite your sources, we can show you how! See more about all our collections.

Having access to so many great sources can be confusing, but getting an overview of your topic and stating your topic as a question can help you focus.

Once you've done that it will be easier to find supporting books, eBooks, articles and media for your topic.

State your Topic as a Question

Once you understand your assignment and have chosen or been assigned a topic you need to find your sources.

If you put your topic in the form of a question and keep that question in mind as you look for your sources, your research will be quicker and more effective.

As you search, ask yourself if the article you are looking at will help you answer your topic question--if it won't, move on to the next article. If you can't find any that will answer it, you may need to change or tweak your topic question. It also helps to identify the main concepts in your question.

Example

If you are interested in finding out about the use of alcohol by college students, you might state the question as:

"What effect does the use of alcohol have on the health of college students?"

In this example the main concepts are alcohol, health, and college students.

Get an Overview of Your Topic

Getting an overview of your topic before you get other sources can save you time by giving you a good grasp of the issues affecting your topic.

If your topic is a current event, CQ Researcher or Issues & Controversies are great for overviews.

If your topic is not as current, Brtianninca and CREDO will work best.

Britannica Academic The award winning Encyclopædia Britannica Online provides access to the full text of Encyclopædia Britannica, the world's premier encyclopedia, as well as Britannica Book of the Year, Britannica Student Encyclopedia, Britannica World Atlas, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Thesaurus, an Internet directory to Web sites selected, rated, and reviewed by Britannica editors, Spotlights and thousands of illustrations, including photographs, drawings, maps, and flags. Editorial Criteria for Selecting Web sites. Restricted to COM students, faculty and staff.
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CQ Researcher CQ Researcher is an excellent resource for current topics. It is well known for its objectivity and thorough research and consists of an annual compilation of weekly issues that cover one topic of current or emerging interest as well as some pro and con info.
CREDO CREDO has hundreds of eBooks: encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations and subject specific titles as well as 200,000+ images and audio files and nearly 100 videos on multiple topics.
Issues & Controversies Issues & Controversies covers the hotly debated issues of the day. It combines authoritative factual analysis, clear explanations of opposing points of view and numerous special features, so students and other users can quickly grasp the essentials of even the most complex topics. Chronologies, illustrations, maps, tables, sidebars, bibliographies and contact information augment the balanced, accurate coverage of current and historical events. Includes pro and con info.

< 3. Your Research Assignment

5. Evaluate Your Sources >